


Just Adam Young

by WaldosAkimbo



Series: Quick and Dirty Good Omens Crack or Drabbles [11]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Multi, adam's 20th birthday, angst question mark, casual polycule, musings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26972395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaldosAkimbo/pseuds/WaldosAkimbo
Summary: The Them return to Tadfield for Adam's birthday, where he muses on his relationship with the collected the Them and steals some time with Pepper.
Relationships: Adam Young/The Them
Series: Quick and Dirty Good Omens Crack or Drabbles [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789003
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Just Adam Young

**Author's Note:**

> I like the idea of Adam still trapped in Tadfield for his punishment, still has his powers, and still wishes he could make a paradise for his gang, if a little softer and gentler than destroying the whole world.
> 
> Also magical Dog. Obviously.

There's a small groan from under the sofa, a protest from one of the legs before the armrest above his head smacks into the wall and he tastes her snort into his mouth the same as he tastes the birthday cake.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"'S'alright," Adam mutters back and smooths his hand across the rough tartan cloth of the sofa until he digs his hand into the cushion and bucks his hip up so Pepper can get the rest of the belt loose. She snaps the end of it against his hip and he groans through a laugh, curling up to rub at the bright spot of skin that was already dulling pink in the dark.  
  
"Sorry," she whispers again, but it's clear by her tone she doesn't mean it.  
  
"Alright...you're not."  
  
"I am."  
  
One doesn't argue with the girl. _Woman._ He winces even if he didn't say it out loud until Pepper shucks up the front of his shirt and gets her claws on his chest. It's not necessarily desperation that's got them here, though having a visit with his old gang to celebrate the big Two-Zero fills him with that dreadful joy that makes him feel like he should sprout wings and fly.  
  
It's been a time, hasn't it?  
  
Wensleydale moved to Cambridge for University, no doubt powering through his degree to become the perfect banker he was meant to be. He calls regularly, like clockwork, and excitedly explains what he's learning to Adam, who listens dutifully and never asks when Wensleydale is coming back. It is always an open invite. It is always a promise.  
  
Brian was just up the road in Brentworth and they still see each other regularly. Adam doesn't even mind his new girlfriend. She always has interesting nail polish and fun stories about different bands she's casually stalked over the years. She smokes and once they had all slept together in Brian's parents basement, tangled up on his childhood bed after a night of companionable drinking. Dog had been annoyed he had to sneak down and eventually got under one of Adam's legs before he calmed enough to sleep. Brian had peeked his head up with a cocked brow before he ran a smoke-stained hand through Adam's hair and drifted back off on his girlfriend's abdomen.  
  
And Pepper.  
  
Well, Pepper volunteers across the country, cropping up at protests and then out on missions to other countries. She is the hardest for him to track, but sometimes he lays out in the garden with Dog curled up at his side and dreams of seeing her wandering foreign streets with her rucksack and hair in twin braids and he watches her travels until his focus wanes and he sinks into a nap under the dappled sunlight.  
  
It shouldn't matter if he watches over all of the Them like he did when they were young. It's a habit now and it brings him peace when he can't explain how or why he does it. His parents have stopped asking. They have also stopped asking if he might move out, go off to university for himself. He had had such lofty dreams as a kid, cops and robbers, spaceships, the likes. Now? Now he just wants to maintain the lawn and go do their shopping and wander the apple orchard. He doesn't step into the world to join the Them. Because they might come back. Even for a birthday.  
  
They both know Pep will be on a bus in the morning. They both know they could have gone to Brian's after the little birthday celebration they had in the Young residence. It's not like Adam didn't leave the house, though that was happening less and less. World changing. Harder to hold onto all of it. Harder to remember....

Still, kissing Pepper was not one of the things he expected after his birthday party. Not in the dark, when they are alone and standing outside and making excuses for the evening. He isn't even sure it's romantic attraction, not really. Something more profound than that, stitched between all of the Them. Something that burns and itches and aches until they stand together in the same room, in the same town, and everything feels alright again.

So, they kiss. They kiss because it's the closest they have to answer for that pain. Brian and Wensleydale are walking the old familiar routes back to their childhood houses after the party found an eventual lull at the end. Pepper looks down the opposite way for her mother's house. Fairly easy to find, even in the dark. And when she turns, she finds Adam's mouth instead and it's hard to say if she instigated it, though she'll always argue she had. She wants to say she did. She wants to bite Adam's lip shut and does. And he smiles at her teeth.

He could kiss all of the Them. He could love all of the Them. But sometimes they want one at a time and he is happy to draw her back into the house and find a spot to be alone.

It feels natural to sneak downstairs to the den, to be pushed onto the ratty couch, for Pepper to straddle him and nearly knock his block off. He doesn't mind it. He thinks she doesn't mind it either when he wraps his arms around her and hugs her close while she's scratching forbidden alphabets into his skin, he feels comforting warmth. He feels a wet nose. He....

"Dog." Adam laughs quietly and pulls free of Pepper's lips, stage whispering towards their elbows. "What're you doing? Go on back upstairs."

Dog is sitting dutifully near the sofa, looking exactly like he needs a walk and a wee.

"You're fine," Adam whispers louder, smiling still, and waves him to go.

Pepper cranes to look over her shoulder at him and laughs towards Adam's chest.

"What?" he asks.

"Nothing," she answers, but that isn't good enough and she knows it. "No, I'm just surprised. He's still around."

"Why?" He lifts his face until he traces her cheek with his nose and kisses her chin, which makes her hum, distracted. "I've only had him, what...nine years now?"

"And doesn't look a day older since you first got him," she says pointedly until he mashes more kisses against her neck, making her laugh again. "Adam! I'm serious!"

"It's just Dog."

"Just like you're _just_ Adam Young."

But before he could ask what that meant, she cups his jaw and kisses him properly, teasing his mouth open with her tongue. He lets her. He lets her in and lets himself sink again.

The weight of her is gone long before morning. He could guess the exact moment she decides to make her retreat, fair enough to guard herself from something more. She gathers up her clothes and he must have shifted because she bends down and kisses his forehead, then his lips.

Still tastes like birthday cake.

Dog, of course, hops up onto the sofa when his spot's free and nestles into space, all the whispering promises of the world bleeding away when he does. Now Adam can really, truly sleep. He can tend the garden tomorrow, keeping their paradise when the Them are ready. Really ready. He will make it perfect again and watch. And wait.


End file.
